Grand Prairie puts itself on the map with another big attraction

Leaders in Grand Prairie said they hope to build on success elsewhere in the city with a new high-rise development planned along Interstate 30 to be known as the Grand Prairie Gateway.

Grand Prairie, between Dallas and Fort Worth, used to be a sleepy bedroom community with little to offer visitors. That changed over the years as the rest of North Texas boomed and Grand Prairie’s population grew to more than 200,000. 

“It was a bedroom community. There were a lot of people that wanted to keep it a bedroom community, but there were a number of us that got tired of driving to the neighboring hood,’ Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen said.

Along the George Bush Turnpike is evidence of a new direction for Grand Prairie. The Epic Central development near Grand Prairie Police Headquarters features new stores, restaurants and parks. A convention hotel is under construction.

OmniPlan

People from surrounding cities who never considered stopping in Grand Prairie before now flock there.

Melissa Majors and her family from Cedar Hill were at the Chicken N Pickle restaurant and leisure attraction Thursday.

“Absolutely, there’s something for the family. There’s parks, great food, and places where you can come and hang out,” she said.

Completion of the George Bush Turnpike over a decade ago provided access to land that Jensen said was once cotton fields.

“The opportunity came when the George Bush Turnpike opened up when we got frontage roads on I-20 and now I-30,” Jensen said.

Completion of frontage roads along I-30 near S. Belt Line Road provides new access for the Gateway plan.

OmniPlan

“There is a great opportunity for us to do something like what you see at Epic Central. That’s why the council hired OmniPlan architects to create a vision of how I-30 could look,” Grand Prairie Economic Development Director Marty Wieder said.

Renderings prepared by OmniPlan show apartments, stores, hi-rise offices, and hotel space.

“That area for so long was visible but it wasn’t accessible until those frontage roads were put in,” Wieder said.

Nearby along Belt Line Road there is already Lone Star Park horse racing, The Texas Trust CU Theater music venue and the former Air Hogs minor league baseball park, which is being renovated for major league cricket this year.

All of it brings tax revenue to Grand Prairie. But Jensen said he supported development for other reasons, too.

“I wanted opportunities and options for our citizens. I wanted jobs for our citizens to not have to drive to downtown Dallas or Arlington, or to go eat,” Jensen said.

Now, people from other places are coming to Grand Prairie for those things.

Visitor Demetri Cotton from Oak Cliff in Dallas said he visits every day to play pickleball at Chicken N Pickle and likes what he sees.

“I think they’re doing a really great job,” he said. “There’s an old Grand Prairie and there’s a new Grand Prairie.

Cotton may soon see more of the new on his I-30 drive from Oak Cliff to Grand Prairie.

Wieder said a six-story building will be the first to break ground by the end of 2023 in the new Grand Prairie Gateway area.